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African Nations Surge Up Ranks of World’s Worst Christian Persecutors
Persecution of Christians is rising in at least eight African countries, according to the latest Open Doors USA list of the world’s worst violators of religious freedom.
“Africa, where Christianity spread fastest during the past century, now is the region where oppression of Christians is spreading fastest,” the group noted.
On the 2013 World Watch List (analysis and Top 10 country summaries at bottom), which ranks the 50 countries where Christians face the most religious persecution, Mali has skyrocketed from being unranked to No. 7 this year, joining Somalia (No. 5) and Eritrea (No. 10) among the top 10.
“Mali used to be a model country. … Christians and even missionaries could be active,” said Jerry Dykstra, spokesman for Open Doors. “[But] currently the situation in northern Mali is Read more…
Sudan Confiscates Southern Oil, What Will China Do?
Oil industry in the Sudan (AP)
Sudan’s government announced this weekend that it had confiscated petroleum exports from newly independent South Sudan as compensation for unpaid transit fees but it promised that it would not shut down a pipeline carrying the south’s oil.
The move is likely to exacerbate tension between the two Sudans and could force China, which is major Sudanese oil buyer, to adjust its policy of noninterference if it isn’t to lose access to the region’s oil reserves.
South Sudan declared independence last year after decades of conflict with the north. Despite a 2005 peace deal, many disputes remain unresolved. Among them, possession of oil reserves which are situated close to the border.
Land locked South Sudan has two thirds of the former unified Sudan’s oil output but needs access to northern export infrastructure to sell overseas. South Sudan pumps around 350,000 barrels per day, according to government data. The north needs the entirety of its oil production, some 115,000 barrels per day, to meet domestic demand. The two parties haven’t agreed on transit fees yet but resumed talks sponsored by the African Union on Tuesday.
In the meantime, Khartoum has confiscated Read more…
The Geopolitics of Water in the Nile River Basin
Prof. Majeed A. Rahman writes: In Africa, access to water is one of the most critical aspects of human survival. Today, about one third of the total population lack access to water. Constituting 300 million people and about 313 million people lack proper sanitation. (World Water Council 2006). As result, many riparian countries surrounding the Nile river basin have expressed direct stake in the water resources hitherto seldom expressed in the past. In this paper, I argue that due to the lack of consensus over the use of the Nile basin regarding whether or not “water sharing” or “benefit sharing” has a tendency to escalate the situation in to transboundary conflict involving emerging dominant states such as the tension between Ethiopia-Egypt over the Nile river basin. At the same time, this paper further contributes to the Collier- Hoeffler conflict model in order to analyze the transboundary challenges, and Egypt’s position as the hegemonic power in the horn of Africa contested by Ethiopia. Collier- Hoeffler model is used to predict the occurrence of conflicts as a result of empirical economic variables in African states given the sporadic civil strife in many parts of Africa. In order to Read more…
World Population to Hit Seven Billion by October
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 7, 2011 (IPS) – The United Nations commemorates World Population Day next week against the backdrop of an upcoming landmark event: global population hitting the seven billion mark by late October this year.
According to current projections, and with some of the world’s poorest nations doubling their populations in the next decade, the second milestone will be in 2025: an eight billion population over the next 14 years.
Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), told IPS seven billion represents a challenge, an opportunity and a call to action.
On World Population Day Jul. 11, he will be Read more…
Republic of South Sudan celebrates its Birth
Church bells rang at midnight to mark the birth of the world’s newest nation – the Republic of South Sudan.
Despite the excitement of the independence celebrations and a mood of joyful expectation in its new capital – the Nile River city of Juba – the emerging country faces grim realities: It is one of the most underdeveloped countries on the planet and has only a 15-per-cent literacy rate. Most citizens live on $1 a day. Education and health facilities are sorely underdeveloped, and fears of renewed conflict abound. Read more…
Biometric Identity: The Great Divider
The use of Biometrics in national identity cards has spliced the globe into two with people in developed nations looking at it as infringement of their privacy and civil liberties, reports Team Inclusion
A debate has been raging in India since Manmohan Singh government broadened the sphere of MNIC (Multi-purpose National Identity Cards) to National Population Register (NPR) appending into it a biometrics-based Unique Identification (UID) number. The opponents of the scheme have accused the central government of snooping into privacy of residents. They fear that the project would prove to be the death of right to privacy implicit in Article 21, which guarantees protection of life and personal liberty. They apprehend that the governmental Read more…
UN Criticizes China’s Failure to Arrest Sudan’s Bashir
The United Nations has criticized China for failing to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir during his visit to Beijing this week.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said Thursday she is “disappointed” China welcomed Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court.
The ICC has charged Bashir with war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region.
Pillay said Thursday that even though China is not an ICC member, Beijing still Read more…
Sudan’s Bashir threatens to turn off oil pipelines
The Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir on Tuesday threatened to shut down the pipelines that transfer oil from the landlocked South to Port Sudan on the Red Sea unless a revenue sharing deal is reached by next month.
- Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir addresses supporters in Port Sudan, capital of Red Sea State June 21, 2011 (Reuters)
South Sudan is a little over two weeks away from declaring its independence officially which came after the referendum held last January which resulted in an almost unanimous vote in favor of secession from the North.
But several contentious post-referendum arrangements have yet to be agreed on between the ex-foes mainly including border demarcation, citizenship, splitting national debt and oil sharing. The latter is a sensitive issue as both sides are largely dependent on oil proceeds to fund their budgets.
The ruling National Congress Parity (NCP) and Sudan people Liberation Movement (SPLM) are negotiating a Read more…
Fighting threatens civilians in Sudan’s Kordofan region
A major humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in Sudan’s oil-producing South Kordofan state, with church and humanitarian officials saying some 300,000 persons are trapped, cut off from relief aid and unable to flee fighting between forces of the Sudanese government and members of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, the former rebel group based in Southern Sudan.
In recent days, there have been growing reports of civilians fleeing to the Nuba mountains in South Kordofan, where officials of the Sudan Council of Churches say civilians are, according to one source, “being hunted down like animals by Read more…
Sudanese town burned, looted
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JUBA, Sudan — Armed men burned and looted the flashpoint town of Abyei on Monday after days of violence involving northern and southern troops in the disputed region. Southern Sudan’s military said it would defend its territory, while an Arab herdsman said his tribe is in Abyei to stay, an indication Sudan’s peace could crumble before the south’s July independence.
Violence flared late last week in Abyei, a no man’s land between north and south Sudan. Southern Sudan voted in January to secede from the south, and the region becomes an independent country on July 9. But violence in Abyei is overshadowing the march toward independence.
The UN mission in Sudan said armed men were burning and looting in Abyei and Read more…
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